Judge drops lesser charge against ex-police officer in Floyd death, keeps two others

FILE PHOTO: Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin poses for an undated booking photograph taken after he was transferred from a county jail to a Minnesota Department of Corrections state facility. Minnesota Department of Corrections/Handout via REUTERS

(Reuters) - A judge dismissed a lesser murder charge against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin but said he still had to face the most serious murder charge in George Floyd's death in May, according to a court ruling released on Thursday.

Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill said prosecutors did not have probable cause to charge Chauvin with third-degree murder but said the evidence supported taking a second-degree murder charge, which could lead to decades in prison, to trial.